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Forest Home Cemetery was the site of a Potawatomi village and "burial ground until 1835".[2][3] Ferdinand Haase, "founder of Forest Park", and other "members of the Haase family" are buried on what at one time also was a Haase family homestead.[2] The cemetery was formally established "and incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois in 1876".[2]

The German Waldheim Cemetery was "organized by a group of German Masonic Lodges in 1873" with the "first interment" on May 9, 1873. The Waldheim Cemetery was established as a non-religion-specific cemetery, where Freemasons, Romani, and German-speaking immigrants to Chicago could be buried without regard for religious affiliation.

The two adjacent cemeteries were merged on February 28, 1969,[2] with the combined cemetery being called Forest Home (Waldheim means forest home in German).

The "Haymarket martyrs", as the five defendants sentenced to death in the Haymarket affair came to be called among their sympathizers, were buried at Waldheim because since its establishment, it had a policy of not discriminating on the basis of race, ethnicity, or politics. In addition, it was the only Chicago-area cemetery that would accept their remains.[4]:4 After their burial, the cemetery became a place of pilgrimage for anarchists, leftists, and union members. In 1893, the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument, designed by sculptor Albert Weinert, was erected.

In homage to the Haymarket martyrs, many other anarchists and socialists are buried at Waldheim, including:[5]